Daily Reviews Summary 10/09/09

What if I told you that there was an air cooling heatsink that could handle the cooling requirements of a CPU that has been overclocked almost 1800 MHz to a clock speed of just shy of 4.4GHz. Would you believe me? Is that really possible while keeping it cool and stable? ZeroTherm has produced outstanding coolers for years, and the new Core i5 cooler could just be the air cooler to answer these questions with a resounding yes.The ZeroTherm Core 92 CPU cooler is the company's first introduction into the Core i5 cooling market. The ZeroTherm Core 92 CPU cooler features a center mounted fan with superior airflow. The heat pipes are designed to come in direct contact with the CPU chip to provide the highest level of cooling efficiency. The near stock mounting design allows for simple installation and removal making motherboard removal not even a factor.

It's a superb graphics card for its price range. It easily outperforms the competing GeForce GTX 285. Besides, the unprecedented overclocking features allows this new single-GPU card to compete with the dual-GPU GTX 295 as well.

NZXT is surely getting a good reputation in bringing to the market inexpensive cases with lots of features only seen on more expensive models. The original Beta, for example, costs only USD 50, with the new Beta EVO costing USD 60. Let's see what are the differences between the two.

If you're looking for a digital camera with one feature that stands out among all the rest, the Samsung DualView TL225 has got it: a dual LCD screen for self-portraits. The 12.4-megapixel has two viewfinders, one on the front and one on the back. The main LCD is 3.5-inches and is a touch screen as well. The above average image quality makes it a camera worth checking out if you want something both unique and functional.

Predecessor of this device we reviewed in January and mentioned it few times since it was, at that time, one of the best of its kind. We are of course talking about Verbatim MediaStation Pro . At this year’s IFA we saw new MediaStation HD and had high hopes, as it looked like we got improved successor of already very good MediaStation Pro. Well, new MediaStation HD has arrived in our test lab, but this time we have mixed feelings about it…

Today we are looking at the Seagate Barracuda 500GB SATA-II hard disk drive. This particlar drive comes with a 5 year warranty, is quiet whilst not ruling out being very quick too. Lots of hard drives on the market are quicker, but you compensate by having a noisy drive. This drive has all the features you would want, from a trusted manufacturer.

Most of NZXT's cases tend to be rather eye-catching, and previously we've had the Rogue and the Tempest from their product range for closer inspection. The previous two cases differed greatly from each other, so lets see what course their latest offering takes - Introducing the Panzerbox.

A short time ago, ATI launched their HD 5870 1GB card to rave reviews. They are now hoping to capitalize on the popularity of that $400 card by releasing its smaller brother the HD 5850- hot on its heals. Not only does it look like the HD 5850 has specifications to nearly match the more powerful card but it also comes with a much lower price of around $300.

With all the new possible fan placement options available, I expect the EVO to give us better temperatures than the Beta ever could hope to do. So let's just dive into this case and see what it has to offer us in terms of functionality.

Last month, AMD became the first company to bring a $99 quad-core processor to market, the Athlon II X4 620. The question, of course, is whether or not it delivers. At 2.60GHz, it looks to offer ample performance, but the lack of an L3 cache is sure to be seen in some of our tests. Luckily, the chip's overclocking-ability helps negate that issue.

During the CPU testing, the Beta Evo was unable to beat any one of the other cases tested, it simply did not have any way to expel any of the heat coming off of the stock Intel CPU cooler. The GPU testing, however, the Beta Evo was able to perform close to the others, the idle temperature was a little bit warmer than the other cases, but as soon as it was put to work, it was able to stay close to the Antec P183 at low fan speed settings. The HDD testing showed that the 120mm fan installed at the front of the case was able to keep the HDD at about mid-range temperatures compared to the other cases.

Today I will be looking at the Spire TherMax Pro CPU cooler, a 90mm cooler that fits pretty much every CPU built in the last four or so years including LGA 1366 and 1156. It has three heatpipes and uses Direct touch heatpipe technology. It includes a UV-reactive fan, built by Spire as they build their own fans. Will the TherMax Pro tame that hot CPU? Read on to see!

When we looked at the GTX 260 Lightning from MSI recently it was really a bit of a mixed bag. On the performance side of things we really liked the card; the aftermarket cooling option that MSI opted for was also really good. On the other side we thought the AirForce Panel proved to be more of a pain than anything else and what we didn't like was that in order to achieve the highest speed MSI advertised you needed to install their own OC software.

Really, at the end of it all, though, the GTX 260 we saw from MSI offered some serious performance and for the most part that's the most important feature for so many users. While that model was part of the Lightning series, it was a special Black Edition as well. Today we're going to be looking at the GTX 275 that sits in the same series, but isn't part of the Black Edition line up.

CPU cooling is a highly competitive market. Over the past 10 years we have seen a multitude of cooling innovations and breakthroughs in how to draw heat from our processors. It seems that lately all the newer coolers are getting bigger and some cases just don't have room for them. Lately I have seen an increase in coolers blocking memory slots and making cable management essential for good airflow. Not all CPU coolers need to be 8" tall and fill up half of your case interior to be effective. Case in point: the Spire TherMax Pro.